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Amtrak objects to VRE decision
Amtrak challenging VRE's recommendation to award contract to Keolis Rail Services America
Date published: 10/31/2009
By KELLY HANNON Amtrak is challenging a Virginia Railway Express Operations Board recommendation to award a train maintenance and operations contract to Keolis Rail Services America. In a letter sent to VRE, Amtrak argues the commuter railway improperly scored Keolis, an international company headquartered in Paris, during the proposal review. Each proposal is rated, or scored, on a 100-point scale. Amtrak was ranked third in the proposal review process, behind Keolis and second-place Bombardier Mass Transit Corp. Amtrak released a statement on the contract yesterday: "The VRE request for proposal was to be scored 80 percent on performance/experience, but the foreign-owned Keolis has no experience operating a railroad in the U.S. or under this country's strict rail safety and security regulations that are designed to protect the traveling public and the employees operating the trains." VRE countered that Amtrak's definition of performance and experience fails to take into account the scope of the evaluation. "The [request for proposal] had nine elements that it looked at," said Mark Roeber, VRE's manager of government relations and public affairs. One element was cost-related, and the other eight elements judged "the operation as a whole, whether it was safety, whether it was maintenance, whether it was insurance," Roeber said. "Performance was one of those criteria, but it wasn't the totality of it," he said. Two weeks ago, the VRE Operations Board voted to end a 17-year partnership with Amtrak, and recommended staffing train crews and maintenance workers starting July 1, 2010, with Keolis employees. Before the five-year contract can be awarded to Keolis, with two renewable five-year options, it must be approved by two transportation commissions. Both the Northern Virginia Transportation Commission and the Potomac and Rappahannock Transportation Commission were scheduled to address the contract at their meetings on Thursday, Nov. 5. Amtrak is asking the commissions to consider its challenge before taking any final action. Amtrak has requested VRE turn over copies of the Keolis proposal, evaluators' notes and scoring sheets. The proposals were scored on a scale from 0 to 100 points. The scores will be made public after the transportation commissions vote, Roeber said. "There is a wide margin," Roeber said. "It's not one or two points."
Date published: 10/31/2009
Amtrak DESERVED to lose...
(posted by
brandonj
, Nov. 4, 2009 5:50 pm)
As a VRE rider, I can say that I agree with TPKeller on this one. I am not a govt employee and my employer does not subsidize my ticket, so I pay the entire ticket price out of pocket. And what I get for my money isn't great-trains break down frequently, employees are not always very courteous and the constant rate increases for service that doesn't improve is getting old. Keolis couldn't do much worse and with the number of foreign owned companies in this country these days, what's one more?
Yeah for the USA!
(posted by
dr428
, Oct. 31, 2009 2:09 pm)
Go VRE - Start sending the dollars to FRANCE. At least you'll have Spotsy paying for your failing business model soon! What a joke this whole VRE is.
Amtrak
(posted by
Resident57
, Oct. 31, 2009 1:03 pm)
is a joke. In the dozen time over the last 5 yrs I've taken the train, they are never on time and the service is sub standard. They obviously don't know crap about RFP's and contracts. Asking for VRE to turn over the Keolis proposal? That won't happen. VRE...tell Amtrak to go pound sand.
It's a harsh jolt of reality...
(posted by
TPKeller
, Oct. 31, 2009 12:55 pm)
for a highly subsidized company (Amtrak) to wake up in the real world of fair competition. They got beat. The competition offered a better package at a lower cost, and the Amtrak management, fattened on the government teat, was not prepared to deal with it. So now they protest and cry "foul". Unfortunately, as we have seen with the USAF effort to replace 50+ year old tankers before they start falling out of the sky, the bitter losers could keep this in court for years. They are not looking out for you.
Evaluatiojn....
(posted by
spunkione
, Oct. 31, 2009 12:09 pm)
So if Keolis has never operated a commuter rail system in US, just how did they evaluate their cs & maint. Surely, you didn’t waste money comparing to how French manage their companies. Oh yeah, French most certainly have better equipment - maybe even something newer than the crap you bought from Chicago from 1940’s & spent millions fixing. It sounds fishy. I doubt you will retain 70% of Amtrak emp - senior guys are not going to lose rank with Amtrak or life-long benefits to outfit Keolis.
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